Editors' Review

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by: Download.com Staff
on February 27, 2009

The electronic version of the Oxford Dictionary of English is handy for quickly looking up a word as you read a Web page or other document. To check a word, you only need to double-click it. You have to install iFinger before you can use the dictionary, which takes a while. The dictionary interface is compact. The search bar installs right into the title bar of just about any Windows application, even for programs such as Ad-aware.

For faster lookup, the most common meanings come up first, but you can expand the article to see more detailed information. The articles are hyperlinked. You can also expand the dictionary base by adding your own dictionaries, either word-by-word or by importing them from text files. This dictionary is helpful, even if you have the printed version.

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Publisher's Description

English/English. The Oxford Dictionary of English (ODE) is generally regarded as the most comprehensive and scholarly dictionary of the English language. The Oxford Dictionary of English (ODE) is a dictionary published by the Oxford University Press (OUP). As of November 30, 2005 it included about 301,100 main entries, comprising over 350 million printed characters. In addition to the headwords of main entries, it contains 157,000 combinations and derivatives in bold type, and 169,000 phrases and combinations in bold italic type, making a total of 616,500 word-forms. There are 137,000 pronunciations, 249,300 etymologies, 577,000 cross-references, and 2,412,400 illustrative quotations. The latest complete printed version of the dictionary (Second Edition, 1989) contained 21,730 pages, with 291,500 entries.

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